5 Keys To Release Emotions

Emotions allow us to relate to others, which does not mean that we often tend to hide them. There are 4 essential or basic emotions (it is true that some authors admit some more): sadness, anger, fear and joy. We consider only one of this group to be positive, but this is a value that our culture gives it. Thus, making this distinction between what is negative and positive can be an impediment to releasing emotions.

Due to our experiences, in which we were vulnerable and hurt, we began to hide our sadness by projecting an image of strength. We do not express our anger out of fear of the disapproval of others, we hide the fear causing it to subdue us and control our joy because on many occasions they have already caught our attention for expressing it spontaneously.

1. Your emotions are important

The aforementioned situations are the product of “underestimating” your emotions and their importance, compared, for example, to what you give to logical intelligence. Perhaps you think, as they have tried to make you see many times, that emotions make you weak. Think that all this does not cause more than a strong containment of them.

By not giving importance to your emotions, you become an expert in “swallowing” with everything that you do not want or can not digest. This in the long run will make you feel very bad, because it will be able to with you, it will overcome you and you will find accumulated emotions that will struggle to get out of you without any control. You will look for air and you will not be able to breathe.

Do you want anger to flow out of control during a meeting at work? Is it okay to be cruel to a friend for accumulating emotions? If you have ever been through these situations or want to avoid them, it is time to change the way you deal with your emotional management.

2. At the moment of releasing emotions, be aware

On some occasion, perhaps you have tried to release emotions and have found yourself with such terrible guilt. This occurs when you express without being aware. Keep in mind that you have to know the correct way to communicate what we feel, from respect for the other person.

In fact, you can see this lack of awareness when you repress your emotions so much that you end up exploding at any moment. You have no mercy then, you do not take into account who you have in front of you, you do not care.

Therefore, express your emotions when you wish by opening your eyes wide and empathizing with the person in front of you to avoid damaging them and that you yourself get hurt for not knowing how to manage this type of situation well.

3. Don’t wait, unburden yourself when you need it

The key so that emotions do not get out of control is that, when you need it, you vent. This does not mean that in certain contexts you should. For example, in an interview or any other similar situation it would not make sense to release emotions in this way as you would be harmed.

However, this does not mean that you cannot do it later. What’s more, you must. Where do you feel free and well? Where do you find yourself in confidence to express everything that you carry inside? Go to that place and open yourself to let out what is inside you.

If you feel angry, hit a cushion, kick a stone, or anything similar; If you notice that fear invades you, allow yourself to tremble, feel it in every pore of your skin and accept it; If what happens to you is that you are sad, cry, scream or look for that person whose hug will dispel any crying.

4. Beware of turning your emotions around

Emotions do not usually last long, think about joy, it is momentary, it does not last for hours and hours. However, when an emotion lasts longer than the “normal” time, we go from talking about an emotion to talking about an emotional state.

For example, you may feel sad, but if that sadness begins to support it with thoughts that go round and round, turning ruminant, generating anxiety, then you are catching that emotion and preventing it from taking its natural course.

Sometimes, you have to know how to distinguish when the emotion has started to feed on our thoughts, becoming a product of those insecurities, fears and beliefs that affect you. Sometimes we make a mountain out of a single grain of sand.

5. Take into account the environment in which you find yourself

If you find yourself in an environment in which it is common for them to say phrases such as “don’t cry”, “don’t be so smiling”, “don’t be angry”, it shows that you have the right to express yourself and that it is very necessary for you. Do it from respect and seeking understanding with others.

The important thing is that you do not stop expressing what you feel just because it bothers others. Something very common and the result of an education that pigeonholes us and prevents us from being as we are. If you need to express your emotions do it, there is nothing wrong with it!

Since we were little, they constantly tell us not to do that, not to express the other … In the end, we adopt the habit of keeping everything we want to say and express to ourselves, while we hurt ourselves as a result of this harmful attitude.

Let’s not let what we feel poison us because it bothers other people that we know how to release emotions. Retaining and catching them many times causes them to begin to be the result of rumination of our brain and that they last longer than they should. We can avoid all this. Let’s begin to allow them to flow as their natural course marks.

Images courtesy of Stasia Burrington